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2 comments on “TSM Episode 372: Tyranny and Right”

Thanks for letting me know about what Shuuichi Kobayashi said. I’ve been all enamored with that guy ever since he decided to produce Star Ocean 5. He said that he saw the decline of console RPGs and wanted to bring something back for all the hardcore JRPG fans out there. So asked to be transferred out of marketing and put his heart into Star Ocean 5. He said he even has a proposal sitting on his computer for Valkyrie Profile 3. But it all depends on whether or not Star Ocean 5 sells well. I hope it does.

My Imitanis gaming moment is Star Ocean 5. So far it’s great. There are some things I like less than previous Star Oceans and some things I like better. So overall it’s a very solid Star Ocean game. I think it at least improves on the two biggest complaints people had about Star Ocean 4. It has much better characters (so far) this time, and they went with more of an anime look, so the porcelein doll face thing is gone now. I expect it will still suffer from awkward translations and script when it comes out in English though.

I really enjoy Rogue Galaxy. It’s mostly running though. Hahaha. I didn’t have that problem when I played Rogue Galaxy on the PS4.

Edit: I had written a long paragraph while listening to Arthur’s reflection on the unintended consequences of the Round Table, but ya’ll immediately addressed them and the lesson the current SocJus champions could learn from it. Bravo gents. This has become a far better listen than I initially expected.

A few thoughts on Dark Souls: I can’t yet speak for 3, having not played it. But Demon’s Souls and definitely the first Dark Souls (where I started the series) are -very- much JRPGs. Not in the turn-based fashion you gents regard them as, but in the Japanese take on dark fantasy and most prominently the looooooooooong-running manga series, Berserk. In fact, several of the characters, sets and weapons are derived from it wholesale. It was these qualities that drew me to start playing the series in the first place. You may in fact think of this as the ‘bait and switch’ that failed with titles like Star Ocean 4 or Infinite Undiscovery. Only in this case, there was superb combat and a multitude of secrets to keep western gamers engaged. Which is probably where Dark Souls 2 went wrong.

DS2 was the sublime gameplay of DS1 and Demons Souls without understanding the aesthetics and assemblage of vague lore that Miyazaki somehow brought together so well. The B-Team responsible for DS2 just threw a bunch of elements borrowed from the LotRs movies together and expected it to have the same impact. And it didn’t. There was a lot of speculation that the lighting system being removed from the game was responsible for the negative feedback. But it wasn’t. It was the lack of proper understanding of the unique qualities that makes Souls, Souls. It was, by and large, Souls made for the West.